Advice on taming

[sophiedoe]

Hello!

So we have had our hamster Kalli for about 12 days now. At first she was in a cage which was too small (the biggest the shop had) but we ordered her a Barney cage after doing research on here. It's great, so much space! We moved her in there 2 days ago, and she seems to have adjusted alright, she moved straight into the bigger house and has been eating/drinking/running on her wheel as normal.

Since getting her, she has become a lot less nervous and we have been giving her food through the bars and also with our hands inside the cage from our fingertips. My partner tried the putting his hand flat on the floor of her cage with food on his palm and she (quite calmly) bit his finger. This seems normal from reading on here, but she bit quite hard and it was painful. I'm wondering how to proceed with taming - is it better to interact outside of her cage? Should we leave her for longer to adjust to the new cage? I don't want to leave it too long.

This may seem a silly question but I'm a bit confused as to how you go about keeping your hands free of food smell (washing before handling etc) but also give them treats whilst handling. I'm a bit nervous to get bitten to be honest, I know you need to try and not be nervous. We haven't held/picked her up at all yet. We have also been doing the scent tissue method.

Any advice much appreciated! Thanks

[cypher]

You might find taming easier out of the cage, especially as she's had a change of cage & not that much time to settle in, sometimes they can get a little territorial & not too keen on hands in the cage, if you do put your hand flat in the cage you can try burying your fingers in the substrate so they're less likely to get bitten or nibbled!
If you can find something like a tube or large mug she's happy to climb into & can leap out of while you transport her try using that to get her out of the cage & take her to a safe play area, a lot of people use the bath with syrians (block the plug & put a towel in the bottom) with lots of things for her to explore & maybe put her wheel in then let her run around a while & begin by gently stroking her, lay your hand down & see if she'll walk onto it, once she's used to that you can try cupping one hand over her & gently lifting her, just a tiny bit at first.
The main thing is to go slow & steady, take your time over each little stage & don't rush her.
You can never keep your hands completely free of the smell of food if you offer treats & they may nibble a bit to begin with but they soon learn what's food & what's not.